Iraq

Assistance to Syrian Refugees: Since July 2012, WFP has been providing food assistance to Syrian refugees who have fled to Iraq. While WFP initially provided food assistance to 5,000 Syrian refugees in the Kurdistan region, it plans to progressively reach up to 90,000 beneficiaries by the end of June 2013. WFP is assisting Syrian refugees through food packages and a voucher programme in areas where security and market capacity permits.

School Meals Programme: During the 2011/2012 school year, the Ministry of Education in collaboration with WFP provided a daily snack of fortified biscuits to 600,000 primary school children in 2,500 schools in 24 of the most vulnerable Iraqi districts. WFP is also building the Ministry of Education’s capacity to design and implement a national school meals programme.

Supporting Government Safety Nets: WFP is supporting the Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs to reform social safety nets for vulnerable groups. WFP is also collaborating with the Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs on capacity building programmes that aim to help ministry staff in poverty-targeting, designing and targeting social safety nets, monitoring and evaluation procedures and developing a management information system.

Cash-for-Assets: WFP is targeting unemployment in some of the areas most vulnerable to violence and insecurity in Iraq through a cash-for-assets programme. Cash for assets provides means for vulnerable families to rebuild their livelihoods, facilitate resettlement and the reintegration of IDPs and returnees while creating employment opportunities to improve access to food. In 2012, WFP has approved 71 cash-for-assets projects in nine districts of three governorates; Baghdad, Diyala and Ninewah. More than 70 percent of the project has been completed with the participation of 46,000 vulnerable people of whom 50 percent were internally displaced.

Mother and Child Health and Nutrition: WFP Iraq launched the Mother and Child Health and Nutrition (MCHN) pilot programme in mid May 2012. The programme works on both preventing and treating malnutrition among children under 5 using ready-to-use supplementary foods (RUSF). The pilot phase of the project covers 27,600 children in six of the most vulnerable districts of Iraq.